{"id":719555,"date":"2026-06-22T17:28:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/719555\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T17:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:28:22","slug":"orioles-blaze-alexander-has-never-lost-his-childhood-joy-from-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/719555\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles\u2019 Blaze Alexander has never lost his childhood joy from baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 This couldn\u2019t be more different than that little field in Indiana, the one behind his house that earned the nickname \u201cThe Sandlot\u201d because all the neighborhood kids flocked to it for baseball.<\/p>\n

They had a net behind a makeshift home plate. If a ball cleared the road in left field, that was a home run. Center field was the street, and a house in right field with ivy on it was called Wrigley.<\/p>\n

That was Blaze Alexander\u2019s favorite field \u2014 the open lot behind his house where his love of baseball flourished. Alexander, a member of a baseball-obsessed family full of minor and major league players, first felt the childhood wonder of this game by running around with his older brother and sister, CJ and Sloane, and all the other neighborhood kids.<\/p>\n

Dodger Stadium this weekend was as far from the sandlot as could be. Its well-manicured grass, perfectly raked dirt, the sea of blue-clad fans \u2014 it\u2019s a \u201cmecca\u201d of baseball, Alexander said, in a different way from the sandlot.<\/p>\n

And yet the sandlot never leaves Alexander, the Orioles\u2019 27-year-old infielder. More precisely, the emotions he first felt two decades ago have never left. Major League Baseball can be a pressure-packed environment, with big-money contracts on the line.<\/p>\n

To Alexander, walking onto this diamond hardly feels different, because the kid inside him remains.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look around, and everything is super calm,\u201d Alexander said. \u201cIt kind of feels like when I was a kid on the sandlot. Truly. Sunset happens, and I don\u2019t know, it brings me back to my childhood. It\u2019s just something I really, really love. I adore the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander got there on his own, but once he showed interest and aptitude, his father, Chuck, dedicated ample time to training his sons. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no pressure to do that,\u201d Chuck Alexander said. \u201cThey just wanted to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Chuck Alexander educated himself on the best drills and weight training avenues to take. They liked to say, \u201cbaseball never sleeps,\u201d and \u201cthey lived with that and went on to be who they are today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This runs in the family, after all. CJ reached the majors with the Kansas City Royals in 2024 and plays in Triple-A currently. Chuck played four years in the minor leagues as a left-handed pitcher. Chuck\u2019s grandfather, Charles, also played in the minors and Cuba.<\/p>\n

\"\"Alexander hugs Colton Cowser after the outfielder hit a walk-off home run last month. (Ulysses Mu\u00f1oz\/The Banner)<\/p>\n

Blaze Alexander\u2019s grandmother was a Plesac, which connects them to uncles and cousins Zach, Frank, Dan and Joe \u2014 all professional ballplayers, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just part of what we did,\u201d said Chuck Alexander, who added that all the family history in the game influenced \u201cme at a young age. It carried over and you kind of wanted to fill those shoes and pursue baseball, and the boys were no different. We never had to force anyone to go to the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, it was more likely Chuck had to force CJ and Blaze off the field.<\/p>\n

When it finally became too dark on the sandlot, another game soon began.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and my brother would roll up socks, and we\u2019d use those little souvenir bats, and we\u2019d play a little game in our room until our dad came up and yelled at us to go to sleep,\u201d Blaze Alexander said. \u201cWe were always doing something baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was in Indiana, where Alexander was born. The family moved to Florida when Alexander was in fifth grade, then returned to Indiana so Sloane could graduate high school where she grew up. Ahead of Blaze Alexander\u2019s high school years, the family returned to Florida, where he blossomed into a baseball star at IMG Academy.<\/p>\n

On the scoreboard at each game, Alexander sees his birthplace listed as Cape Coral, Florida. He wants to set the record straight. He was born in Merrillville, Indiana, and the family lived in nearby Hobart.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where this love began: on the sandlot.<\/p>\n

There were many times, Alexander said, when his dad would return from work, pull his car in the driveway and find Blaze\u2019s friends sitting in the garage. Blaze wouldn\u2019t even be there \u2014 but Alexander said all the kids had the garage code, which meant they had access to \u201call the popsicles and drinks you can imagine\u201d in the refrigerator.<\/p>\n

To some, the freedom with which they play the game leaves as they grow older. The stakes are higher, there is money riding on results, and thousands scrutinize their every move. <\/p>\n

\"\"Alexander joined the Orioles from the Diamondbacks in a trade in February. (Ulysses Mu\u00f1oz\/The Banner)<\/p>\n

Alexander hasn\u2019t lost that. His father thinks some of this has to do with playing baseball for only part of the year as he grew up. Alexander also wrestled at a high level, and while baseball taught him teamwork, wrestling taught him to compete and to control his emotions.<\/p>\n

It also toughened him, Alexander said. When he learned to deal with headlocks and takedowns, he could handle a tough bounce on the infield \u2014 or in the driveway and street, where Chuck Alexander hit his boys grounders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d field balls on the concrete. We wouldn\u2019t even use the sandlot,\u201d Blaze Alexander said. \u201cHe\u2019d hit us ground balls on the road and we\u2019d get crazy hops, and that\u2019s the hardest surface you\u2019re going to field on. We\u2019d ruin baseballs. He\u2019d hit bullets on the concrete, and that\u2019s where we learned to field. If we can field on this, you can field on anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s why Alexander is so at ease on a major league field. The hops here, by comparison, are routine. And at the plate he\u2019s hitting as though the stakes are only so high as a game with friends.<\/p>\n

With his three-hit performance Sunday against the Dodgers, Alexander\u2019s average rose to .312. Since May 25, Alexander has a .446 average and 1.194 OPS. He\u2019s proving he deserves everyday at-bats for the Orioles while showcasing to his teammates that almost nothing rattles him.<\/p>\n

\u201cLove his attitude,\u201d Alonso said. \u201cHe plays with this childlike joy that shows, and it\u2019s really infectious for the rest of the squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take Saturday night\u2019s game as an example. The Orioles were on the ropes against the Dodgers. The stadium was loud. Two runs had already scored in the ninth inning, with defensive gaffes playing a role in the unsteady display.<\/p>\n

And yet, in the clubhouse after the 3-2 win, Alexander beamed. He called all of that fun. And why shouldn\u2019t it be?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was having fun,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know. You\u2019re in Dodger Stadium. It\u2019s loud. Just hit me the ball; I want to make a play. That\u2019s what I was thinking. I was enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because you can take Alexander out of the sandlot in Hobart, Indiana. But you can\u2019t take the kid out of Blaze.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 This couldn\u2019t be more different than that little field in Indiana, the one behind his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[9097,40976,371,363,309796,48262,99],"class_list":["post-719555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-city","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-mlb","tag-opacy","tag-orioles","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}